Russiaâ€™s Competition Watchdog Files case against Google

Published By : 20 Feb 2015 |Published By : QYRESEARCH

The Russian competition watchdog committee has stated on Friday that it had filed a case against Google Inc. over an alleged violation of the law of anti monopoly in the market, following a complaint that was registered by Russia's biggest search engine Yandex NV against Google Inc.’s mobile platform.

Yandex has stated on Wednesday that it had requested the watchdog to undertake investigation regarding the case if Google Inc. was misusing its dominant position in the field of Android operating system for smartphones and mobile devices, restricting the market for other competing software applications.

The watchdog responded by saying that it had already studied the complaint and has decided to start proceedings of the case regarding Google violating the anti-monopoly regulation, a spokesperson for the FAS competition watchdog of Russian said without elaborating.

Google’s office in Russia denied its indulgence of any such anti-competitive behavior.

Device makers are free to install the apps they choose and consumers always have complete control over the apps on their devices," Google said in emailed comments.

The Russian investigation has come after European regulators were warned to anticipate a possible challenge to Google's mobile operating systems and applications business in July last year.

Two sources who direct knowledge about the matter had stated that the European regulators were preparing for the groundwork of a case that centered on whether Google misuses the nearly 80 percent market share held by of its Android mobile operating system in the market to promote additional services such as maps and search.

They added that the European Commission had also sent questionnaires to handset makers enquiring whether Google had set a requirement which made them not give the users pre-install apps, products or other services on smartphones and other mobile devices that could compete with Google software such as app store, maps, and its search engine.